Adobe analyzed data from more than 150 billion retail websites and compiled its holiday predictions today, foreseeing that by the Cyber Monday close of 2012 post-Thanksgiving shopping, online sales would reach about $2 billion. That data, compiled in its Digital Indexprior to the shopping season rather than being accumulated after the holiday shopping has closed, predicts an 18% growth for online shopping over previous years.
“Rather than report on what happened after the fact this holiday season, we are leveraging big data captured by the Adobe Marketing Cloud to accurately forecast the trends before they happen,” said Brad Rencher, senior vice president, Digital Marketing Business, Adobe, in a press release today. “This helps our retail customers plan for consumer spending activity online to better monetize their holiday campaigns. Adobe is the big data company for marketers, helping them sort through and understand massive amounts of online and offline transactional information to uncover patterns that will help them better understand and drive their business forward.”
Similar to its physical retailer counterpart of Black Friday, or the day immediately following Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday is the largest shopping day of the year for online purchasing. While Cyber Monday may account for the most sales, Black Friday is expected to be the runner-up for online sales, despite the advertised in-store promotions meant to lure consumers into businesses. Another expected peak for online sales will occur later in December, routinely known as Free Shipping Day; this year’s date of December 17th will mark the last date that consumers can expect online orders to arrive in time for Christmas, and a number of retailers take advantage of the last minute shopping rush.
The full Adobe report contained a number of interesting predictions, such as the expected increase by 110% of sales made from mobile devices to account for 21% of all online sales, and the 13% of all sales made from tablets. Additionally, social media interaction with retailers’ websites is expected to double over last year.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
